Hungarian politics

Schmitt quits

The Hungarian president resigns after a damaging row over plagiarism

HUNGARY'S most polarising political drama since riots in the autumn of 2006 is over. On April 2nd Pal Schmitt, the president, resigned after Budapest's Semmelweis University stripped him of his doctorate over plagiarism. “It is my duty to end my service,” he told parliament.

Few Hungarian politicians resign over scandals, so Mr Schmitt may have rendered his country his biggest service by departing fairly swiftly. The affair started in January when a news website, hvg.hu, uncovered numerous similarities between Mr Schmitt's 1992 thesis on the modern Olympic Games and the work of a Bulgarian sports historian. The president's thesis was referred to an investigative committee at Semmelweis, which ruled in a 1,157-page report that Mr Schmitt had directly copied 17 pages and partially copied another 180.

Mr Schmitt's departure marks the end of a long career in public service in which he has shown a chameleon-like ability to adapt to changing circumstances. A gold medallist in fencing, he has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1983. Back then privileges such as travel abroad, meetings with foreigners and access to foreign currency were granted only to the most loyal citizens.

After the end of communism Mr Schmitt made a swift turn right. He served as an MEP for the ruling right-wing Fidesz party before being appointed president in the summer of 2010. The job is mainly ceremonial, but Mr Schmitt's predecessors occasionally sent legislation back to parliament or the Constitutional Court for further scrutiny. Not Mr Schmitt, who made it clear that he was there to help his allies in government. He did not challenge a single one of the 365 laws fast-tracked by Fidesz in its first 18 months in office.

Mr Schmitt's resignation comes at a sensitive time for the embattled Fidesz government. Several of its laws have been challenged by the European Commission and the Council of Europe on various grounds: that they limit media freedom, threaten the independence of the judiciary and impose political control over the central bank. A spat over the budget deficit has delayed financial help that Hungary needs to ease its debt crisis.

Yet the pliable president's departure is unlikely to do serious damage to the government. Viktor Orban, the prime minister, has lost a useful ally, but his replacement will be chosen by parliament, where Fidesz commands a two-thirds majority. The new president may bear a striking resemblance to the departing one.

Mr Schmitt's resignation could even help Mr Orban in his rows with Europe over media freedom. Last week a public television channel broadcast a laughably sycophantic interview with Mr Schmitt, while he was still attempting to cling to office. But private media are proving increasingly aggressive in uncovering wrongdoing in politics and business. Even the new Magyar “minigarchs”, the powerful businessmen close to Fidesz, are coming under scrutiny. Next time Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice-president, comes calling to express her worries about media freedom, Mr Orban can direct her to the website that brought down a president.